Max McGee, a chiropractic patient turned advocate who recently established The Center for Pennsylvania Chiropractic Justice and Education (CPCJE) has launched an electronic newsletter to inform other supporters of chiropractic issues in his state.

McGee, who works for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, was denied by Capital Blue Cross. He subsequently contacted the State Attorney General's Office, the Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner and state legislators regarding the situation. "To date, (I) have collected thousands of pages of documentation and am still fighting Capital Blue Cross," he noted in his inaugural newsletter.

When he learned that the IME who reviewed his case for the insurance company based his decision on the Mercy Guidelines, McGee started researching the document.

"I was stunned to find out that they were normed on 20-something males (I am 49), that they were intended for uncomplicated back strains only, that not even workman's compensation would use them as treatment guidelines. I learned, too, that every chiropractic association in the country that attended the consensus conference at Mercy repudiated their use in my situation, and that the research they relied on was almost 10-years old," he told The Chiropractic Journal at the time.

When he discovered that the Mercy Guidelines were still listed on the National Guidelines Clearinghouse as current, he contacted NGC administrators and informed them that the document was outdated. He even went so far as to contact Sen. Arlen Specter and the U.S. Attorney's office to lodge a complaint of fraud.

In January 2002, McGee learned that the Mercy Guidelines had been removed from the NGC as obsolete guidelines.

His willingness, and ability, to make important changes gave him the impetus to start the advocacy group.

"The bottom line of the whole thing is that chiropractic patients in Pennsylvania are being discriminated against. They can go to other health care providers for much more treatment for the same conditions and insurers will cover it, but not for chiropractic care," he explained. "That is why I started the CPCJE."

The stated purpose of the e-mailed newsletter is to "notify and educate you of issues that affect chiropractic in Pennsylvania, whether they be legislative, political or insurance related."

He added that, "I hope we can build a new coalition together. One which will further help ensure the justice of chiropractic patients in our state."